


Family Colors

by moonrunes



Category: Champions (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Gen, after she dropped the pendant, how do aliens work? however u want them to, one where she was still wearing her costume, questions about legacies, short stupid thing, this takes place in an alternate universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 18:16:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15491796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonrunes/pseuds/moonrunes





	Family Colors

_I trusted you._

The pendant slipped between her fingers, landing with a splash in a muddy puddle.

_You have my name, you wear my colors, but seeing how far you’ve gone to make your point, I can see my trust was misplaced._

Kamala rolled her eyes back, willing the tears not to fall. _Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry._

She sniffed. _Don’t cry. Stop crying. Stop._

“Are you okay?” 

At the sound of the voice, she stiffened, wiping her eyes and looking around. “Um. Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.”

The speaker was right behind her, a tall-ish blond-ish dude who looked about the same age as Aamir, his shoulders hunched as if he was trying to make himself smaller and her dropped pendant in his hands. “Uh. You dropped this. Hey, you’re Ms. Marvel, right?”

“Yeah. Uh, yeah, that’s me. Thanks.” She accepted the pendant again and shoved it in her pocket, rubbing her eyes. “Yeah.”He nodded slowly, watching carefully. “No problem. Hey, listen, I don’t want to be creepy, but are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just, you know, with this weird argument between Iron Man and Captain Marvel and the predictions and the infighting and...stuff.” She sniffed again. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. I, uh, I know the feeling. Both sides seem wrong but you feel like you need to align yourself with Carol because of the Marvel thing, right?”

“Y-Yeah.” Kamala jerked her head up and stared at him. “Um, not to sound, like, invasive or anything, but are you on first name terms with Captain Marvel?”

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Um. Sort of? I mean, she’s probably never going to be at Thanksgiving dinners but, y’know. I know her. Knew her.” He cleared his throat. “I’m Teddy, by the way. Teddy Altman. But, uh, everyone recently knows me more as Hulkling.”

Kamala’s eyes widened. “Hulkling?! With the Young Avengers? Oh wow, hi -- I heard you were the son of Captain Mar-vell -- the original Captain, I mean -- is that how you know Captain Marvel -- the current one?” She could feel herself stumbling over her words, much to her horror -- but he didn’t seem to mind, waiting until the flow of information had stopped before responding.

“Yeah.” He chuckled, studying her with careful blue eyes. “You sure know your superhero history if you know I was with the Young Avengers.”

“Of course! I-you were all so inspiring! I really looked up to you guys -- I mean-” Kamala squeezed her eyes shut and willed her words away. “Sorry, this probably feels -- weird, me knowing so much about you. And superheroes. Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. Reminds me a lot of someone else, actually.” Teddy waved a hand, still smiling. “And yeah, I’m Mar-vell’s son -- try not to post that on any forums, though, will you? I don’t want to attract any attention with that.”

“No problem.” She fell into step beside him, mind whirring a mile a minute as she almost managed to forget the worries plaguing her since her run in at the junkyard. “Is it weird to ask what you’re doing in New Jersey? I thought you were on that Avengers Idea Mechanics squad right now -- I saw the press conference on the news and I, uh, thought that was in California. Or something.”

“It’s not weird, don’t worry. And nah, we -- Squirrel Girl and Wiccan and I -- were forcibly removed via teleportation when we refused to, y’know, commit treason.” He laughed again but it sounded hollow, almost hopeless. “So. I don’t know what they’re up to right now. But to, uh, answer your original question, we’re in New Jersey ‘cause Wiccan’s brother lives here.”

“Speed, right?”

“Yeah. You’re good.” 

“Thanks.” Every nerve in Kamala’s body screamed that it was too much, that she was letting too much slip past and that she was being creepy, knowing too much -- after all, it would be equally weird if someone did that to her, right?

“So. Not to change the topic or anything, but, uh, how are you holding up with Carol and this -- they’re calling it the next civil war, did you hear?” He gave a bitter chuckle, knuckles turning white on the strap of his bag. “As if one wasn’t enough.”

“Yeah. I’m, uh. Well, I’m…” She searched for words that didn’t come and eventually settled for a sigh. “I don’t know. It’s all so confusing and weird and everything seems to be happening above my head and Captain Marvel got angry at me today and it’s just. A lot.”

“Why was she angry? I mean, not to pry or anything -- you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to-”

“No, no, it’s okay.” A glimmer of hope popped up in her mind, like the reward right after a taxing dungeon battle (though she couldn’t quite understand why hope had appeared). “I-she wanted to do a thing about predictive justice and it seemed like a really good idea but then it got out of hand and people got hurt and-”

_Oh, no, don’t start crying again._

“Yeah,” she said in a smaller voice. “I called in Iron Man to see if he could work it out better than I could and -- well, she wasn’t super happy about that.”

_You have my name, you wear my colors, but seeing how far you’ve gone to make your point, I can see my trust was misplaced._

“And, you know, she said some stuff about her name and her colors and about how her trust was misplaced and-” Kamala took a breath, trying to stave off the tears, looking up to see a storm passing over Teddy’s face. “What?”

“Did she really say that?”

“Name, colors, trust misplaced thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah. Why?”

“That doesn’t-okay, here’s the thing. I don’t really care if she got half my father’s genes merged with hers in that weird accident -- that doesn’t mean she’s ‘family.’” He let go of his bag and gestured wildly, brows furrowed. “See, I’m willing to bet that her ‘colors’ -- whether or not Mar-vell actually gave them to her -- are actually, technically mine, if Kree family colors work the same way as Earth family colors, you know? Family colors, parent to child. And she originally took the name to honor Mar-vell so, like, it’s not even her name and-slash-or colors to get angry about.” 

He stopped on the sidewalk and turned to face her. “So. My name, my colors, my say -- and honestly? I think you’re doing great. We’re all rooting for you, Ms. Marvel.”

“Oh.” Kamala sniffled and tried to smile. “I’m-thank you. Sorry, I-I’m trying not to cry.”

“No, you should cry. Better you let your emotions go rather than keep it all in your head.” He offered her a tissue and she gratefully accepted as they continued their slow amble down the street. “Plus, coming from a former teen hero, you’re way more put together than we were.”

“What?” Kamala blew her nose and tried not to wince at the noise. “You guys were great! You had, like, equipment and-and teammates, you know-”

Teddy cut her off with a laugh, shaking his head. “Nah, we were -- still are -- disasters. Like, I still wonder if someone’s going to show up on our doorstep to arrest us ‘cause breaking someone out of juvie is probably-definitely a crime.”

“Wait. You broke someone out of juvie?”

“Yeah. Well, it was a superpowered juvie and they were experimenting on the kids and it was for a good cause, but. Y’know. Technicalities, technically.” He waved a hand. “And, you know, you haven’t stormed Castle Doom by yourself in the middle of the night -- presumably -- so yeah. You’re way more put together than us.”

“Whoa. You guys stormed Castle Doom?”  
“Nope. Wiccan did, by himself, in the middle of the night, and he’ll tell you that there was no ‘storming’ involved, that it was a 'subterfuge mission,' that he got all the way to the inner halls of the castle before he went and fought his own mother -- and Doom himself.”

“That’s so cool.” Kamala could feel her face frozen in admiration but she didn’t care, half-jogging to keep up with Teddy. “I mean, that’s incredibly scary, ‘cause _Doctor Doom._ But also really cool.”

He laughed, throwing his head back and letting the sound float on the air, and Kamala giggled. “That’s exactly what Wiccan said he was thinking. You two are a lot alike, you know that?” 

“We are?” 

“Yeah.” Teddy stopped in front of an apartment complex (his, Kamala assumed), and she stopped with him, both of them waiting at the bottom of the stairs as he fumbled for his keys. “You both know your superhero history and aren’t afraid to stand up to authority figures for what you believe in -- though, I honestly think that you’re more rational than he is, considering the aforementioned Castle Doom storming.”

“Thank you!” She smiled, bright as the sun, and he looked up and grinned back.

“No problem.”He found his keys and hummed triumphantly, raising an eyebrow at her. “Will you be okay, walking home alone?”

“Yeah, I should be okay. Thanks, though.” 

Teddy nodded slowly, watching her carefully. “Okay. Well, you know where I -- we -- are, if you ever need anything, okay?” He gestured at the building behind him. “Don’t even hesitate to ask for help if you need it.”

“Okie dokie.” She gave him a tiny wave, returned in kind as he climbed the stairs. 

“Oh, and also remember that Carol isn’t always right, okay? And that this big civil war -- like the other one -- has to end eventually. Keep your head up, kiddo. Okay?”

“Alright.” 

“See you around, Ms. Marvel.” He gave her one last wave (and a grunt as he struggled with the lock) before he disappeared behind the door, leaving her alone in the fading light, the pendant still heavy in her pocket though Captain Marvel’s words no longer weighed down her mind so. 

Yeah. Maybe this would all work out after all.


End file.
